Was smoking allowed in the boxing arenas in the past?

I couldn't believe this thread in the classic section.

In the '40s and '50s at MSG, or any fight club in New York, if you weren't in the first few rows you'd be lucky to make out the ring through the fog bank.

The smell of cigarettes was in the air for blocks around MSG (like the smell of chocolate in Hershy P.A.); it signalled you were gonna have a great night at the fights.

Actually, the tobacco smell that gets you tossed from movie houses, warnings from Human Resources, and breaks leases now was mother's milk to fight fans. You'd leave the arena, and the gym, (not to mention all the bars) smellin' like an ashtray. (Forget about tryin' to get it outta your clothes!)

But, we loved it -- it was a guy thing --and remember it fondly...crazy as it sounds in this day 'n' age.

 

Which reminds one of the classic anecdote about Tunney wanting the windows of Stillman's Gym open. "Let's get some fresh air into this place!" Johnny Dundee, reportedly saying as everybody was looking at Tunney as though Gene was nuts: "Fresh air? Why that stuff is likely to kill us!" (First of all, did Dundee really refer to the air outside Stillman's as "stuff," or a much more colorful invective?. And if Johnny really said it, he may have had a point. I certainly wouldn't want to be letting the outside air then surrounding Stillman's into my indoor location either. And Tunney really ought to have known better. He got all the fresh air he could have possibly wanted flying from Stroudsburg to Philadelphia for his challenge of Dempsey, and wound up airsick! Perhaps everybody else in Stillmans's was right, Gene really was nuts!)

JG, I just had a most unpleasant night crowded with nightmares of diverse varieties. Waking up to your post over coffee has been a very welcome and delightful relief from a long evening of cold sweats. Cheers!:smoke:hat:rasta:secret

 

I know, considering the way world is now, D, that it seems unthinkable that fans could enjoy themselves -- actually look forward to that toxic air, but we did; it was perfume to us: the smell of fight clubs, gyms and card games.

Every trainer, manager, and promoter smoked a cigar. It was commonplace to see fighters smoking Chesterfields between rounds of sparring. Seconds attended to them while puffing a stogie. Rocky Graziano used to hit the speedbag while smoking.

It was a right of passage for kid to wanna smoke.

 

There was none of the science that there is now, D. Nobody thought it was holding them back. Great fighters were puffing like chimneys in the gym and in the street and knockin' guys dead sparring and in actual fights. why wouldn't young kids wanna emulte them. Every macho screen hero smoked.

Guys like Lou Jenkins, Willie Pep, Mickey Walker and Fritzie Zivic would not only smoke but be half 'n' the bag most of the time.

Smoking meant: Having a good time. The U.S. government supplied GIs with free Chesterfields all through WWII. What better stamp of approval could we have had.

 

If you guys watch the Joe Louis vs Max Baer fight, at one point you see a large puff cloud of smoke swarm around the fighters. It was pretty common.

Amazing, I dont know why, maybe Garfield can explain it, but why in Walcott Marciano II, they had a no smoking rule??? Was this the begaining of the end of smoke full arenas ??

 

If you guys watch the Joe Louis vs Max Baer fight, at one point you see a large puff cloud of smoke swarm around the fighters. It was pretty common.

Amazing, I dont know why, maybe Garfield can explain it, but why in Walcott Marciano II, they had a no smoking rule??? Was this the begaining of the end of smoke full arenas ??

 

I'd always assumed it was practically compulsory to smoke at a boxing match up until the 1960s. I've seen the pictures of cigarette fog arenas.

John's wonderful recollections confirm my assumption.

I do believe some of the most fitness conscience boxers knew not to smoke, or NOT TO SMOKE TOO MUCH, for maximal stamina. Guys like Gene Tunney, Rocky Marciano.

Then again, some recent fighters have "enjoyed the benefits" of cigarette smoking. I believe Mayorga smokes.